We went to see a Chinese person whose English was reasonable. However when we started on their business requirements, it quickly became apparent that his English skills were excellent for coffee and tea and general discussion, but as the conversation moved into some extremely technical details for their accounting and computer requirements, he could understand but speaking he had a lot of difficulties. So how do we communicate?
If this happens to you too, here is a tip.
What we did, whenever the conversation got unclear was went to google translate on their computer here.
Then he typed into the computer when communication started to break down his questions in the Chinese section, and out popped out immediately an English translation that I could read. Although I am sure that the translation was not brilliant, we were able to move on with our discussions.
If you find yourself in this situation, then this is something you may want to try too.
Since this sometimes happens, partly, for this reason, I have a Google Home unit on my desk at work, among its many other functions it that it has an interpreter function.
I say to it "Be my (insert language) interpreter.”
It knows a lot of languages. I find that its interpreter mode gives me a fast and effective translation. All I do is raise the volume, and then the unit will translate for us the conversation if I speak in English it will translate to that language, and if they talk in that language, it will translate what they said into English. Again it may not be brilliant, but it is fast and quick and helps me out fairly often.
If you want to know more here is a youtube video well worth looking into too.
This might all help you are work too.
